August 30 News Items

Rovers Begin New Observations On Changing Martian Atmosphere (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
Mars rover scientists have launched a new long-term study on the Martian atmosphere with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer. The new study will focus on newly discovered fluctuations in the argon composition of the Martian atmosphere. During warmer seasons, approximately 95 percent of the Martian atmosphere consists of carbon dioxide. Nitrogen accounts for almost 3 percent and argon for less than 2 percent. But when winter sets in at one of the poles, carbon dioxide freezes out of the atmosphere to form a polar cap, causing a low-pressure system that moves air toward the pole. Argon stays in the atmosphere and becomes enhanced because it freezes at a much lower temperature. "It gives you a way of inferring aspects of the Martian circulation that you can't observe at all with any other instrument that's out there," said a researcher.

Virgin Galactic Space Travelers to be Trained by NASTAR (Source: Flight International)
National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center has signed a contract to provide Virgin Galactic with training for Virgin Galactic's suborbital space travelers. NASTAR Center will train and prepare the first 100 private space travellers scheduled to take suborbital flights with Virgin Galactic, known as the "Virgin Galactic's Founders", but it will also provide ongoing training of Virgin Galactic's space travellers after the Founders and for those who want a space flight experience. The training will take place from September through November at the center's facilities near Philadelphia.

Crist, Kottkamp Go South to Tout Space Industry (Source: News-Press.com)
Gov. Charlie Crist and his top lieutenant slip the surly bonds of Tallahassee today and head for South Florida to promote the space industry. Crist begins his day on the Space Coast with a 10:30 a.m. visit to Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in Palm Bay, an appearance that is quickly followed by lunch with Brevard County officials in Melbourne. A 1:30 p.m. press conference at Northrop Grumman on NASA Boulevard follows that. Crist ends his visit with an appearance at the Space Coast Marine Institute at 2:15 p.m. Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp will be a little further south, beginning his day with an 8:30 a.m. meeting of the Space Florida advisory committee meeting in Fort Lauderdale. Later, Kottkamp will head a full board meeting of Space Florida, the quasi-governmental group charged with promoting the industry and preserving thousands of jobs that will be at risk when NASA retires the space shuttle in less than three years.

Water Vapor Seen 'Raining Down' On Young Star System (Source: SpaceRef.com)
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected enough water vapor to fill the oceans on Earth five times inside the collapsing nest of a forming star system. Astronomers say the water vapor is pouring down from the system's natal cloud and smacking into a dusty disk where planets are thought to form.

Architect Selected for NM Spaceport (Source: The Business)
Foster & Partners has won a landmark contract to design the world’s first passenger “spaceport” in New Mexico. The announcement of who will build the terminal and runway, the first to send paying passengers into space, will be made at a presentation hosted by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. Foster & Partners, which is chaired by Lord Foster and is the firm behind the City of London’s “Gherkin” building, the Millennium Bridge and the new Wembley stadium, was selected from 11 other firms who submitted plans to build the 100,000 sq ft base for Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson’s venture into space.

Branson, who is investing ~$200 million in Virgin Galactic, will charge passengers ~$200,000 for a two and a half hour flight and 3,000 passengers are expected over the first five years. They will experience four minutes of weightlessness and share the same view of the earth that until now has been afforded to just a handful of astronauts. Flights are expected to fall to ~$20,000 eventually. Test flights will begin in 2008. Other entrepreneurs looking at offering space flights include Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, and Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft.

SpaceX Dragon Receives Initial Approval From NASA Safety Review Panel (Source: SpaceX)
SpaceX has successfully completed the first of three phases of review required by NASA's Safety Review Panel (SRP) to send its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). Over a series of meetings spanning four days at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the team of SpaceX engineers developing the Dragon spacecraft presented their Phase I plans for sending the cargo version of Dragon to the $100 billion dollar orbiting space laboratory.

The review covered twenty-three specific hazards, with extra attention paid to the danger of collision -- one of the most difficult hazards to mitigate. The issue of preventing a collision with the ISS was a primary topic of the safety review, and is generally considered one of the more difficult visiting vehicle topics. According to the Safety Review Panel's approval letter, the Phase I collision hazard report for Dragon was approved on the first attempt. As part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) competition, SpaceX intends to demonstrate its launch, maneuvering and docking abilities by 2009 -- a year before NASA has scheduled the conclusion of Space Shuttle operations.

Astronaut Boozing? No Proof, NASA Says (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
NASA investigators said Wednesday that they could not find one instance in which an astronaut had engaged in heavy drinking during launch day, despite an earlier report to the contrary. "I was unable to verify any case in which an astronaut-spaceflight crewmember was impaired on launch day" or any case where a manager disregarded warnings from another NASA employee that an astronaut not fly, said Bryan O'Connor, NASA's Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance. However, O'Connor said NASA doctors should play a stronger "oversight" role on launch day, accompanying astronauts as they suit up for launch. He also recommended that excessive drinking be added to NASA's list of forbidden pre-launch activities and that the agency consider testing all its employees for alcohol as well as drug use.

California Rocket Workers Getting Settled in Colorado (Source: Denver Post)
When United Launch Alliance transition facilities manager Clint Winterling first saw the building, he knew he had a challenge on his hands as he worked to set up the new corporate headquarters for the rocket joint venture there within months. The building in Centennial was once occupied by Rhythms NetConnections Inc., a formerly highflying Internet-access provider that filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001 and shut down. The office building has taken on a new life as the home of hundreds of ULA employees moving in this summer. The ULA is a rocket joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing that started operations last December - people working on Lockheed Martin's Atlas rocket program and Boeing's Delta rocket program became ULA employees.

The ULA also hired about 400 new employees, mostly from the Denver area. About 180 of those just graduated from college. The company will ultimately have close to 1,900 employees - further expanding the rocket hub in the Denver area. The economic impact of the ULA will amount to about $414 million a year, according to Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.

UCF Unveils New Telescope (Source: CFNews13)
Wednesday night, UCF unveiled its new custom-built 20-inch telescope. The cutting edge Telescope, which is housed in the Robinson Observatory, is a dozen times more powerful than the telescope it replaced and allows for sharper viewing and the ability to photograph faraway stars and other space bodies. With the advances in technology that have happened it has really brought the type of research you can do down from a mountain in Chili to something you can do here on campus and students can actually get involved with. The refurbishing of the observatory and new telescope was funded with a $150,000 grant. It will be open to the public twice a month.

Gap in Spaceflights: Is U.S. Pride at Risk? (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon sounded the alarm Wednesday that the four-year gap between American human spaceflight programs is a threat to national pride. Between town-hall meetings with workers at the Kennedy Space Center, Weldon, told reporters that Congress needs to give NASA more money. He said the money would shorten the time between the retirement of the space-shuttle fleet in 2010 and the start of the Constellation program in 2014.

"Do we, the richest country on the face of the Earth, want to be dependent on Russia to launch our men and women into space?" Weldon said. Weldon, wearing a space-shuttle tie and lapel pin, also suggested the gap could delay President Bush's goal of returning to the moon. "Who is going to get back to the moon first?" Weldon asked. "China has made it very clear they want to go to the moon. Are we going to get there and be greeted by somebody holding out for us a nice warm bowl of chop suey and chopsticks?"

New Mexico Spaceflight Coming, Spaceport Plan Progresses (Source: Alamagordo Daily News)
The future of southern New Mexico glows with possibilities when considering a spaceport in the area, according to the state's Spaceport Authority. The Spaceport America budget is $198 million, with $140 million from statewide taxes and $58 million to be raised from local gross receipts taxes. Federal money is being discussed but is not included in the current estimates. The target date for Virgin Galactic launches into space from New Mexico is December 2009. The criteria which must be in place for the launch to happen are SpaceShip Two has to be certified to fly with passengers, and Spaceport America must be ready to operate.

Suborbital rockets can be launched during the 2008 and 2009 runway construction period. "To do construction and rocket launching in the same area will mean a complicated schedule, but we need to learn to do that because we'll always have many customers operating at the site," said an official. Commercially speaking, point-to-point flights will be just as important as orbital operations. For example, taking a flight from the Rio Grande to the Rhine in an hour is one of the possibilities.